---
title: She hesitated a while, however, scarcely able to believe her eyes, a… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She hesitated a while, however, scarcely able to believe her eyes, and not knowing if she should enter the enchanted spot or fly from it. Who acts: princess. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 15

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She hesitated a while, however, scarcely able to believe her eyes, and not knowing if she should enter the enchanted spot or fly from it.

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**Who acts:** princess · **What happens:** hesitate, believe, not know, enter, enchant, fly · **To what, where:** eyes, enchanted spot, spot

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (princess), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg3282:31:15
# text = She hesitated a while, however, scarcely able to believe her eyes, and not knowing if she should enter the enchanted spot or fly from it.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	hesitated	hesitate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	however	however	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	enchanted	enchant	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
27	from	from	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hesitate** | past | princess |  |  |  | while |  | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **believe** | to-infinitive | princess *not said here* | princess's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer eye=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **know** | gerund | princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **enter** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | princess | the enchanted spot |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme spot=Destination |
| 5 | **enchant** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **fly** | infinitive | princess *not said here* |  |  | spot |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from it=Trajectory |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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